Baggies striker Jay Rodriguez and Brighton defender Gaetan Bong were involved in a tight battle with the flashpoint arriving near the hour-mark

He claims the words he said were nothing more than “your breath stinks”. Bong, though, is adamant the FA should throw the book at the Baggies frontman.

Bong told French TV station SFR Sport: “He did that because of the colour of my skin.

“Everybody could see this gesture and I asked him to repeat what he said. At this moment, I think he realised what he said and he tried to limit the damage.

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“And I replied to him, ‘No! What you said was racist!’ I will not tolerate that. I signalled the gesture to the referee.

“At the end of the game, he tried to say, ‘No, I didn’t say that.’

“But I said, ‘You can’t say that. Not to a human being’. And most of all to a black man. At this period, with everything happening in the world.

“With everything that happened for many years. This gesture must be banned.”

Bong urged referee Martin Atkinson, who appeared to miss the initial bust-up and had to consult fourth official Tony Harrington, to act against Rodriguez.

Bong added: “I think he was upset because I blocked him in the last play. After that, he said some words. He said racist comments.

“And I just can’t take it. As you can see, I looked for the referee to tell him. I told the ref what Rodriguez said to me. First, the referee told me to get back in position. I didn’t accept that so easily.

“We are in 2018. And we cannot tolerate this. I cannot tolerate this!”

Winger James McClean insisted his team-mate Rodriguez is no racist.

He said: “When a person holds their nose and waves their hand over their mouth that always indicated your breath stinks, for as long as I’ve known anyway.

“To suggest otherwise and put a man’s reputation at risk is poor, given the man is one of the nicest blokes you could meet.”

In a statement, the FA said: “Referee Martin Atkinson was made aware of an allegation and has subsequently reported this to the FA, which will now begin making enquiries.”